In Memoriam – Georgy Agzamov

4/19/2007 – He was the first ever Uzbek, and thus arguably the first ever Asian grandmaster. Born in 1954 Georgy Agzamov was not just a strong player – the nightmare of top GMs – he was also a great ambassador for chess. At the age of 32 Georgy died in a mountaineering accident. In March a memorial tournament was held for him in Taskent. Spectacular photo report by Jamshid Begmatov.

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In Memoriam – Georgy Agzamov

A report by Jamshid Begmatov

The
Agzamov Memorial took place in March 2007 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was the
first international tournament to commemorate Georgy Agzamov – the first
ever Uzbek, and arguably the first Asian Grandmaster. Not only was he a very
strong player, nicknamed “the nightmare of top GMs” in the Soviet
Union, he also did a lot to promote chess in his native Uzbekistan and beyond,
in such remote locations as Cuba, United Arab Emirates, India and many other
countries where he worked or volunteered as a chess coach and tournament organizer.

Georgy Agzamov was born on 6th September 1954 in a small town of Almalyk in
the province of Tashkent, into a family of doctors. He started his chess career
quite early by that time’s standards. At 12 he already won the championship
of his town with outstanding result – 16 out 18. In 1984 he was awarded
the title of International Grandmaster. I didn’t follow this up, but some
still argue that this was the first time the title was awarded to a player from
Asia.

[Addendum: a number of readers have pointed out that the Philippines
was able to produce two grandmasters in 70's, Eugene Torre (1974) and Rosendo
Balinas (1976). "Furthermore," writes GM Zaw Win Lay of Myanmar,
"although geographically Uzbekistan is inside Asia, in 1984 Uzbekistan
was stiil part of USSR, which is part of Europe. So theorically, Georgy Agzamov
was a European. He was really strong player – I played him once before."]

Georgy Agzamov in a game against Mikhail Tal...

... and against Tigran Petrosian

At the age of 32, just in the heyday of his glory, Georgy died in a tragic
accident in the mountains of Sevastopol, the Crimea. There are controversial
opinions as to how exactly the incident took place, but everybody knows the
final detail – he fell from a mountain…

The memorial was a nine-round Swiss with a prize fund of over US $10,000. Not
a big deal, some will say. But this surely is a serious amount for a chess tournament
in a developing country like Uzbekistan. This all became possible thanks to
the Communication and Information Agency of Uzbekistan, which recently took
over the patronage over chess in the country, and personally to its Director
General, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Mr. Abdullah Aripov who is also
the President of the Chess Federation.

Abdullah Aripov delivering speech at the opening ceremony

The tournament was held in the newly refurbished Tashkent Chess Club. The
club has a long history, and has hosted very strong tournaments including several
championships of the former USSR.

Although he didn’t play in the tournament, the 2004 FIDE World Champ
Rustam Kasimjanov attended the re-opening ceremony of the club after refurbishment.
This is where Rustam made his first steps to the path of a World Champion.

The club is located in one of most spectacular and quiet areas of downtown
Tashkent – in a park crossed by this beautiful river where you can see
fishermen and divers twelve months a year.

Players included several GMs, IMs and national masters from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan and the United States. There was
a lot of hard-edged, fighting chess. Here are the top ten winners:

What? Did I win?! – surprised joint winner of the tournament, Kyrgyzstan’s
top GM Leonid Yurtaev, delivering speech at the closing ceremony.

Another joint winner GM Marat Dzhumaev. Just pronounce it Jumaev, or read
about this weird combination of letters – dzh – in this
article. Marat won the critical last round game against IM Anton Filippov
with black, and joined the top.

The third top winner IM Sergey Kayumov.

There was a special prize for best female player, which was won by actually
the youngest female of the tournament Hulkar Tahirjanova – a familiar
face.

On the free day between rounds five and six there was a big celebration of
Navruz (or spelled Nowruz, Norouz, etc. in different countries) – the
traditional new year holiday celebrated in Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan,
Albania, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan,
as well as among various Iranian and Turkic populations in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan,
India, Northwestern China, the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the Balkans.

Traditional music is indispensable at any celebration in Uzbekistan. From
right to left: Surnay, Nogara, Doira and Karnay. Look at the cheeks of the man
on the right – not everybody can blow this amazingly loud instrument.

Navruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year. It is celebrated
on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox (start of spring in northern hemisphere),
which usually occurs on the March 21st or the previous/following day depending
on where it is observed.

Another must at Navruz celebrations in Uzbekistan is Sumalak. Cooked only from
wheat and water, without a smallest bit of sugar, Sumalak has a sweet taste
and a pleasant flavour. This very special holiday meal is usually prepared in
a very very traditional setup by a group of women. It takes about 14 hours of
constant stirring, during which they talk to each other, tell stories and jokes,
sing songs and dance. And are the men of any use? They provide wood for the
oven and ensure there is constant moderate fire to boil the thing evenly.

End result: crushed wheat, snow-white at the beginning, turns into this
rich brown mass after 14 hours of boiling, and it’s sweet without sugar.
After tasting it, GM Fominyh from Russia asked me time after time, and I’m
still not sure he believed me that this sweet taste comes with NO sugar. It
does.

And of course, no celebration in Uzbeklistan could be imagined without Plov.
The Cook is Alisher, father of Hulkar who won the best female prize.

Hulkar with her friend, washing rice for Dad’s plov.

Alisher also presented his special recipe to a TV audience. It was delicious.

I was born in 1974 in Andizhan, eastern-most city of Uzbekistan, into a family
of university teachers. Nothing significant happened during my school years
except, maybe, that I learnt to smoke, drink beer and vodka, and others useless
things. But undoubtedly, one positive thing I gained from school is the knowledge
that then allowed me to enter university, in the English Language Faculty. However,
after completing the first year, I came to a conclusion that there was nothing
left for me to study at this faculty, and I decided to change my field of study.
In 1992 I entered the University of Istanbul, International Economy. Then, in
1994, for reasons unknown to me, almost all Uzbek students studying in Turkey
were drawn back to Uzbekistan and placed in different local universities. So
I had to transfer to Tashkent University of Economics, International Economic
Relations, from which I graduated in 1997.

After graduation I tried several jobs as a civil servant, wasn't quite happy
though. Then I just accidentally happened to participate in the Soros Foundation's
competition for English-Uzbek translation of a university textbook on Sociology,
which I won. I translated several books since, including Economics, Financial
Management, Economics Teacher's Guide etc. At the present I work as an interpreter
for Cambridge Education Consultants project in Tashkent. However, I view myself
as an economist and since last year I'm conducting my PhD research in Economics.
My thesis is "Economic Globalization and Its Impact on Free Trade Issues in
Uzbekistan".

As a chess player I am not that strong, but I really love this game. My Elo
rating is 2150 (according to Fritz). As I have no human opponents available
when I have time, I love playing correspondence chess via email. Currently I
have a number of opponents throughout the world and would be delighted to play
some email games with ChessBase readers too.

See also

3/27/2018 – Sergey Karjkin didn't succeed in posing serious problems for Ding Liren and after, what he called, a "terrible blunder", he had to scramble to save a draw. That left Caruana in great shape to win the tournament. Mamedyarov struggled to find winning chances with black against Kramnik, but in the end that game ended drawn as well. Caruana, needing only a draw, was in command against Grischuk and even won the game to finish in clear first by a full point! | Photo and drawings by World Chess

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1/28/2018 – Magnus Carlsen won the 80th Tata Steel Masters which was decided in a blitz tiebreak over Dutch number one Anish Giri. The players contested two blitz games with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move, with no sudden death Armageddon game needed. Vidit played solidly to earn a draw that was enough to win the Challengers, as Korobov could not manage to pull off a win with black on-demand. | Photo: Alina l'Ami TataSteelChess.com

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.